George and Marshall spent their lives in caves, searching for treasure. What they found instead was a deadly secret. Now they’ll have to fight just to get out alive. On Feb. 23, they’ll learn some things that were never meant to be discovered.

So you have the bones of a movie trailer script . but it’s missing something. It needs the intense male voice, the eye-catching text and the interesting clips from the film that give a taste of the story. That’s the complete package. Anything else would be unexpected and somewhat disconcerting.

That’s a good way to describe movie trailers’ pathetic younger sibling – book trailers. They come in three forms, as far as I can tell, and each fails miserably. You have the Middle School Book Talk, a picture of the book and a 10-second description of its plot. You could also see the Bad Home Movie, a melodramatic re-enactment of an event or two from the novel. Or you could just be lucky enough to stumble upon the Crazy Powerpoint, a whirlwind of random transitions and pictures that may have something to do with the story. Or, you know, maybe not.

I’ve seen at least one of each category, and I can’t remember what any of the books were called, let alone what they were about. That’s not good. I can’t very well go into Barnes and Noble and ask for that book on the television with the girl and the dress and the lake.

The funny thing is, the book industry thinks it’s already in. It thinks it has “tapped into the MTV generation,” according to Killian Fox of The Observer. Don’t break out the party hats just yet, guys. You still have a long way to go before those trailers appeal to anyone.

The book industry needs to develop its own formula for advertisements. Something we’ve never seen before. Which means not the types of ads I mentioned above. Maybe a new name is in order, like book wraps. Trailer never made much sense anyway.

Some people will say it doesn’t matter if anyone likes the trailers because people choose their books by jacket covers, not by television commercials. That’s true for anyone standing in the bookstore, but not for those at home. Even those who read for fun watch television, and if they see an interesting book, it doesn’t matter if they saw it online, on a friend’s bookshelf, lying in a gutter or . in an advertisement.

Besides, an engaging television ad could peak someone’s interest who wouldn’t normally call reading a book fun.

There is potential in book advertising, and there’s no reason to think it can’t blossom from television. Magazines, newspapers, bathroom stalls, billboards, radio. Maybe even enough advertising to rival movies. But it has to start with the book industry getting its act together.

No more grown-up Reading Rainbow. We grew out of that when we stopped reading picture books. Give us something incredible. Come on book industry, I know you have it in you. Blow us away.

– Bailey Lewis is a sophomore in English from Indianola.